Have a question for Tim?

Follow the Padres on Facebook

Have a Facebook account? Follow the U-T's Padres page for links to video, stories and other content, and to interact with other fans. Go to: facebook.com/sdutpadres

The game was the thing, and being prepared for the game was paramount. If the measure of Hoffman’s baseball career was 601 saves, still the ultimate record among relief pitchers, the Padres’ prolific closer was better defined by long, lonely laps run in otherwise empty ballparks.

“Work ethic — that’s what I think about,” Tony Gwynn said. “Every day, him in that doctor’s smock and he’s running in the outfield at 1:30 or 2 o’clock. He was never satisfied, always working to get better. I think that’s why he had the kind of longevity he had.”

Formally confirming a foregone conclusion, the Padres announced Thursday that Hoffman’s No. 51 will be retired in a postgame ceremony Aug. 21 at Petco Park. He will be the fifth Padres’ player so honored, joining Steve Garvey (No. 6), Gwynn (19), Randy Jones (35) and Dave Winfield (31) in the select club commemorated in jumbo-sized numerals atop the ballpark’s center field hitting background.

The timetable is curious — Hoffman made his final relief appearance less than eight months ago, and as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers — but big league ballclubs retire numbers by reflex rather than referendum. Unlike election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, there is neither a five-year waiting period nor specific criteria nor a lot of sanctimonious sportswriters complicating the deliberations.

This gives clubs considerable latitude, but it also allows them to act on odd impulses. The Chicago White Sox retired Harold Baines’ No. 3 in 1989, 12 years before he was finished as an active player. Conversely, the New York Yankees did not remove Phil Rizzuto’s No. 10 from circulation until 1985, nearly 29 years after his final game. That the Padres have retired Garvey’s number and the Los Angeles Dodgers have not speaks to the subjectivity and capriciousness of the custom.

Yet given the unpleasantness surrounding Hoffman’s involuntary departure from San Diego after the 2008 season, the Padres’ new management has appropriately assigned priority to making peace with franchise icons. And with the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera only 26 saves behind Hoffman’s major league record, sooner may be preferable to later.

Having returned to the Padres as a special assistant, Hoffman was aware of the club’s desire to dignify his career with an on-field tribute. But he had not anticipated his number being retired just yet until Padres’ President Tom Garfinkel broached the subject over breakfast Thursday at Solana Beach’s Naked Café.

“I wasn’t prepared for that,” Hoffman said of the honor. “It’s a team game. To kind of have an individual celebration like this. … I never really liked all the light on you.”

The spotlight, though, was inescapable. Protecting leads in the ninth inning is a job for wire-walkers, not wallflowers, and doing it at an elite level without an overpowering fastball and for nearly two decades is a marvel approaching magic.

“When you consider the impact that Trevor made on this city, this organization and on the game of baseball itself, there’s no doubt he’s truly deserving of this honor,” Garfinkel said. “Why wait?”

Considering the Padres’ place in the standings, and the limited drawing power of the Florida Marlins, their Aug. 21 opponent, there’s probably no time like the present to celebrate the club’s past. Following the offseason deal that sent Adrian Gonzalez to Boston, Trevor Hoffman became the Padres’ only plausible candidate for numerological immortality.

“It was just a matter of time,” said Randy Jones, the only other Padres pitcher to have his number retired. “I’m excited about it and his career and what he meant to San Diego Padres’ baseball.

“When I think of Trevor, I think of longevity and consistency. Not just being great for a couple years. Here’s a guy who did it for a whole decade.”

Nine times, Hoffman saved at least 40 games in a season. Twice, he led the National League in that category. But if Trevor Hoffman is associated with any specific number, it is AC/DC’s “Hells Bells,” the most evocative entrance music in baseball.

“I remember distinctly the first time I heard ‘Hells Bells’,” Gwynn said. “But it didn’t register right away. When it really dawned on me that Trevor had a song that they played when he came in was when we were in Arizona.

“I remember sitting in the dugout and they started playing ‘Ice, Ice Baby’ by Vanilla Ice (for reliever Matt Mantei). I hadn’t paid that much attention, but I thought, ‘That’s nowhere near as good as Trevor’s song.’ Now, every time you hear (‘Hells Bells’), that’s what you think of.”

Padres fans never had to ask for whom the bell tolled. He wore No. 51.